


So Sudden and New

by BattlingBard



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fic, Fluff, Karaoke, Neighbors, Singing, and it's in dialogue format to describe what's going on, and they aren't talking the lyrics, but it works - Freeform, but this ended up having more lyrics in it than i wanted it to, it's not like a musical, let's just say it's a, shower au, tbh I hate song fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 02:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18085472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BattlingBard/pseuds/BattlingBard
Summary: Sometimes the instinctive response to the nightly singing coming through one of the shared walls of an apartment is to bang on that wall and yell at them; other times, the response may be to leave passive aggressive notes by the mailboxes.What happens when the response is to join in on the singing?





	So Sudden and New

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheGrimLlama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrimLlama/gifts).



> This was supposed to be finished by Valentine's Day as it was part of @TheGrimLlama's gift, but... stress. I could leave that as the answer, but you can continue reading if you want.
> 
> Post production for "The Bech" has been thoroughly backed up, but WE PREMIERE MARCH 15TH! FINALLY! I maybe typed 40 words while I was visiting her for a month and a half, so that's why I was MIA for that time. Look, when you are in a long distance relationship, sometimes you forget about your life back home when you are with them. Totally worth the 15-16 hour time difference, 24+ hours of travelling, and everything else though. The major reason this is still being posted UNFINISHED is because I ended up getting more into it when I got back to it and added more, so now we are just at the halfway point.
> 
> Anyways.
> 
> Life happens, and sometimes people have to take time between posting or leave a fic permanently. Nothing wrong with that.
> 
> Thanks for sticking around!

Kara weaves her way through the boxes scattered around he new apartment - all in different stages of the unpacking process. She drops her purse on her couch as she passes through the living room and begins shedding her clothes as soon as she’s in her bedroom. Grabbing the first pajamas she finds, she makes her way into the bathroom before turning on the shower and removing the last of her clothes. She picks up her phone to search for music when she realizes she can already hear music. With a tilt of her head, she seeks out the source of the familiar song.

“That’s definitely _Mamma Mia_ ,” she mutters.

Stepping into her shower, she finds the music is coming from the other side of the wall. Kara smiles when she hears the voice of a woman singing along with the words. She happily hums as she begins to shampoo her hair, but the song comes to an end all too quickly. Within seconds, Kara recognizes the next song and feels some of the exhaustion from before slipping away.

The other woman sings the first part, and Kara jumps in with the second part without questioning herself.

“There’s been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz.” Kara hears the woman gasp in shock - obviously able to hear her, but Kara continues singing the Elphaba part. “But of course I’ll care for Nessa.” She bites her lip to try to contain her smile when her new shower duet partner continues singing with her. Kara allows her super hearing to extend just enough to hear the music coming from the other side of the wall as they both grow less timid in their impromptu duet.

Kara refrains from being too animated, keeping her voice at the same volume as the other woman. By the end of the song, she’s bobbing her head in time to the music and actively avoiding thinking about singing a duet with a stranger through a wall while showering.

\---

Lena rinses off the last of the soap from her body and out of her hair as she sings the remaining lines of the song.

“And I will be loathing for forever. Loathing truly deeply. Loathing you my whole life long.” She shuts off the water with the last note, shaking her head at herself and this unexpected turn of events. When she hears “boo” come from the other side of the wall, her responding shriek is genuine and not entirely the lyrics. She presses a hand to her chest before bringing it to cover her eyes as her body shakes in light chuckles.

She turns off the music from her phone and wraps herself in a robe. “Either I’m drunker than I thought, or I just sang with a stranger while naked,” she mutters under her breath and leaves the bathroom.

* * *

 

A week passes before Lena is home at a reasonable hour. She gratefully sighs as she kicks off her heels just inside of the front door to her apartment, hanging her purse and jacket by the door.

She turns the volume off on her phone to avoid any notifications disrupting what little sleep she will be able to obtain tonight. Discarding her clothes, she opts to take a quick shower before falling into bed. A few moments of mindlessly scrubbing her hair later, she finally becomes coherent enough to hear the music coming through the wall.

“Well this is really different than Wicked.” Lena chuckles, listening to her mystery shower woman singing along with Kesha.

“Tryna get a little bit tipsy.”

Lena surprises herself by joining her for the chorus. Their volume increases with each line throughout the chorus. Her voice falters on the first few words of the next verse when she realizes the woman is letting her take it on her own. She doesn’t sing as loudly as when they were singing together, but she continues singing while rinsing the shampoo from her hair. Although Lena isn’t entirely certain this is actually happening, she is enjoying the chance to loosen up after a long day. Mystery shower woman rejoins her for the chorus, and Lena looks over her shoulder in surprise when a perfect harmony filters through the wall.

\---

Spinning around, Kara grabs a shampoo bottle as she harmonizes with shower duet partner for the bridge of the song.

“You build me up. You break me down. My heart, it pounds, yeah you got me.”

She shakes her head to the beat, smiling through her singing. As they come to the end of the bridge, she holds up her hands.

“Put your hands up!”

Freezing with the shampoo bottle held out toward the wall separating her from the other apartment, she allows the woman to take the next part.

“Now the party don’t start til I walk in!”

With a blinding smile, she bounces up and down as they sing the last chorus together. She hears the water turning off in the other shower and pushes down the disappointment of the fun ending so soon. When she hears chuckling coming from shower duet partner, Kara forces herself to focus her hearing on the music coming from her own apartment and not someone else’s.

The next song has a much slower tempo, so she resorts to softly humming while finishing her shower. When she settles on her bed for the night, she briefly considers listening into the apartment unit behind hers, but quickly shuts down that idea as creepy and an abuse of her powers.

“It probably won’t happen again, right?” She watches the ceiling, waiting for an answer.

* * *

 

It happens again.

Three nights later, Kara zips into her window in a practiced blur of motion to keep from being seen. A disgruntled alien with the single goal of breaking into a bank and a penchant for spouting questionable slime at anyone within 20 feet kept Supergirl busy for the better part of the evening. Although Kara took a long decontamination shower at the DEO, she insisted on pushing off a debriefing until the following morning in order to shower at home with all of her soaps and hair products. Her suit falls to the floor of her bedroom with a thud, and Kara continues into the restroom to turn on her shower. She can’t help but feel as though she is still covered in slime. So focused on getting into the warm water, she doesn’t even think to turn on any music.

Closing her eyes, she rests her head against the wall and allows the water to wash over her while the conditioner seeps into her hair.

Familiar music reaches her ears, and a smiles plays at the corners of her lips. She hums along with the first chorus, listening to shower duet partner sing along. Soon, the shower on the opposite side of the wall turns on, and the singing gets louder. Kara turns her back to the shower head and sings along with the pre-chorus.

“Hands,” she holds up a hand to the wall between them, “touching hands.”

\---

Lena smiles when she hears mystery shower woman. Touching the wall between them, she gets more animated in her singing. “Reaching out… touching me, touching you.” She hears the laughter in her own voice as the enthusiasm is clear from both of them.

“Sweet Caroline!”

\---

Kara plays imaginary drums with each beat. “Bah! Bah! Bah!”

“Good times never feel so good.”

\---

“So good! So good! So good!” Lena sings into her shampoo bottle.

They finish the chorus together, and Lena lets mystery shower woman take the next verse. She blames the bourbon for the extra flair she puts into her shower performance, but isn’t disconnected enough to not realize how beautiful the other woman’s voice is.

Again, they are singing the chorus together - mystery shower woman harmonizing flawlessly.

As the last chorus comes to an end, Lena hears the shower turning off next to her. The woman finishes the song with her as it fades out, but Lena is left alone with the next song that plays. With a sigh, she focuses her fuzzy mind on bathing herself and only humming along with the music. Probably too many songs later, she’s turning off the water and stepping out of her shower.

“Until next time,” she mumbles before switching off the bathroom light.

* * *

 

Kara has been the sister of Agent Danvers long enough to know that something happening more than three times is no longer a coincidence, but knowing that doesn’t stop her from being surprised the following night, when shower duet partner turns her shower on moments after Kara steps into her own shower. Wincing, Kara glances toward her phone, suddenly acutely aware of the Disney playlist coming through the speakers. “Hakuna Matata” is coming to an end, and Kara can only listen in painful anticipation for the fate of any future duets.

The next song fades in, and Kara sucks in a breath in excitement, momentarily forgetting about her anxiety and shower duet partner.

“I can show you the world,” she closes her eyes and begins washing her hair, “shining, shimmering, splendid.”

Within seconds, she’s fully invested in the song. Hair full of shampoo, Kara spins around with her eyes closed, holding out her arms and imagining she is on a magic carpet as her voice gains more animation for the chorus.

\---

Lena, sober and fully awake Lena, giggles. She actually giggles at mystery shower woman’s enthusiasm and the absurdity of the situation. The woman’s voice is so perfect, and Lena just throws caution to the wind. If anyone asks later, she can say she was drunk again.

Spinning in a tight circle that sends her wet hair twirling, Lena channels the child Lillian tried so hard to hide away from the world. “A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view!” She doesn’t even remotely care that her talent is nowhere near the caliber of mystery shower woman’s angelic voice.

Even though she knows the next Aladdin part is coming up, Lena is unprepared for the voice flowing through the walls that seamlessly flows with her lines.

“Unbelievable sights, indescribable feeling.” Lena closes her eyes and brings her hands to her hands to her chest. “Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky.” She presses her back against the wall between them. “A whole new world.”

\---

Kara presses her hands against the other side of the wall. “Don’t you dare close your eyes.”

\---

Lena turns around in the shower. “A hundred thousand things to see.”

\---

“Hold your breath. It gets better.” Kara hugs her loofah to her chest.

Kara’s smile is bright as she listens to shower duet partner sing until it’s her turn again.

“A whole new world…”

\---

“Every turn a surprise.” Lena tilts her head back to rinse out the shampoo from her hair.

\---

“... with new horizons to pursue.” Kara closes her eyes, easily seeing Rao setting over Krypton.

\---

Lena sighs. “Every moment, red-letter.”

“I’ll chase them anywhere.” Of course, mystery shower woman joins her with a beautiful harmony that Lena wants to say is better than the original. “There’s time to spare.”

With a wistful smile, she leans back against the wall again. “Let me share this whole new world with you,” they sing together.

\---

“A whole new world.” Kara’s voice softens as she turns her back to the wall and leans against it.

\---

Lena shuts her eyes. “A whole new world.”

\---

“That’s where we’ll be.” Kara lets her head fall back against the wall.

\---

“That’s where we’ll be.” Lena holds a hand under the falling water.

\---

Kara closes her eyes, focusing on the music. “A thrilling chase.”

\---

“A wondrous place,” Lena sings on a sigh. Closing her eyes, she inhales for the last line they have together.

\---

“For you and me.”

Kara carries the note longer than shower duet partner, remaining with her back pressed against the wall and her eyes closed. When she hears the woman on the other side of the wall sigh softer than a human would be able to hear, Kara shakes her head and pushes herself off of the wall to focus on showering. The next song that plays on her phone is not nearly as engaging as “A Whole New World,” and she’s not sure she’s up for singing anymore for the night - this performance being her favorite so far.

“So far?” she whispers to herself with a scoff. “Don’t act like this is going to be a thing.”

* * *

 

Now that Lena knows that not only is mystery shower woman real, but she has, in fact, been singing spontaneous duets with a stranger through a wall that is obviously separating their showers. She tries valiantly to not think of the wall as the only thing between her and a naked woman with a beautiful voice; however, her mind strays to what songs she would want to hear mystery shower woman sing during her ride home. Sneaking a glance toward her driver, she assures herself that she hasn’t been caught in her daydreaming before turning her attention back to the emails on her phone.

She tries to focus on her emails.

Instead of remaining on her email application, Spotify is soon open on her screen. By the time the car pulls up to the curb of her building, she has a new playlist on her phone.

\---

“You’re doing it again.”

“Hmm?” Kara hums in question, but doesn’t take her eyes off of the television in front of her.

“Kara.”

Kara finally turns to her sister. “What?”

“You were tapping your foot and shaking the couch again.” Alex nudges Kara with her elbow. “Are you still thinking about -”

“No. No.” Kara waves a hand in dismissal. “I meant it when I said I was over it.”

“Okay,” Alex drags out the word, waiting for more of an explanation. “I know we haven’t had a sisters’ night in a while -”

“You don’t have to feel guilty about that, Alex.” Kara smiles at her. “I don’t blame you for wanting to spend time with your new... friend.”

Alex smiles down at her lap. “Thanks.” She glances up at Kara through her brow.

“You know I really am happy that you’re getting back out there.” Kara giggles as she uses air quotes.

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex grumbles, but she’s fighting back a smile.

Kara bumps her shoulder against Alex’s. “Maybe soon, I’ll even be able to meet her.”

“Okay, okay.” Alex holds up her hands in surrender. “You win.” She pushes Kara back to her side of the couch. “Now do you wanna stop avoiding the question and tell me why you are so fidgety?”

Shrugging, Kara snags a pillow from the couch and hugs it in her lap. “I guess my mind’s just not here.”

Alex showed up a couple of hours ago with pizza, potstickers, and the promise of at least one movie. With an original plan of showering with a few songs to wash away the day full of Cat Grant being in one of her moves before settling on the couch with Netflix and Kryptonian amounts of food, Kara was perfectly fine with the change. Some time during the first movie, Kara heard shower duet partner come home right before the first time Alex called her out for fidgeting.

That was over an hour ago.

Tonight is the first night in over a week that Kara has heard shower duet partner come home before she was already in bed. She is more than accustomed to hearing other people go about their lives, but specifically listening to a stranger going about her night to see when she will shower is more than crossing a line.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“What was that?”

Kara turns toward her sister. “What?”

“You just said something.”

“Oh.” Kara wills her crinkle not to form. Alex pokes her forehead, and Kara knows she didn’t succeed. “I don’t know,” she says with a sigh, dropping her head onto the back of the couch. “I’m sorry.” She flops her head toward the side to look at her older sister. “It’s just been a long week.” Groaning, she rubs a hand down her face. “I honestly don’t know what’s been going on with me.”

“Is it Cat?” Alex straightens, gaining a more serious, older sister expression. “Is she getting suspicious again?”

“Maybe.” Alex’s eyes go wide, and Kara is quick to reassure her. “Not the getting suspicious thing.” She grabs Alex’s arm, preventing her from doing something crazy like kidnapping Cat Grant. “There’s this big project going on, and she is trying to beat Lois at something, and… I can’t even really begin to talk about how hectic CatCo is right now.” She shakes her head. “I can’t imagine what being her assistant would be like if I were human.”

Alex sighs thoughtfully and relaxes back into the couch. “Maybe it’s time to start thinking about moving up.”

“Maybe.” Kara shrugs, picking at the edges of the pillow.

They both turn toward the screen, catching the end of the forgotten movie. “So do -” Ringing from her pocket interrupts Alex. She pulls out the phone, but hesitates.

“Answer it,” Kara reassures her with a smile.

Alex steps onto the fire escape to take the phone call, and Kara ignores it out of habit for her sister’s privacy. Unconsciously, Kara’s ears find shower duet partner. She can hear her humming along with the music playing, but not singing. Kara doesn’t ask why she’s disappointed. When Alex returns a few minutes later, she barely has to say a few words before Kara knows what she wants to say.

“It’s okay.” Kara gives her a hug. “I don’t mind sharing. Go be with your girl.”

“She’s not my girl,” Alex throws over her shoulder as she tugs on her trademark leather jacket.

“Not yet.”

“I heard that.”

“Good.”

* * *

 

The following day, Kara turns down getting drinks after work with Winn and James, opting to spend time with her couch and a box of pizza to reset after the rough week. She steps into her shower without turning on any music, thinking about the food she plans on ordering and what she should watch. Washing her hair, she begins to hum absentmindedly. Her humming soon turns into singing random songs that pop into her mind. By the time she’s massaging conditioner into her scalp, she’s putting on her own private concert. She notices her apparent theme for the night is something along the lines of “women power” when she is halfway through “Girl on Fire.” The shower on the other side of the wall turns on, and Kara smiles brightly through the last chorus. Without much conscious decision on her part, the next song in her mental playlist is “Sisters are Doin’ It.”

Kara sings the first verse by herself, wondering if shower duet partner knows this song - as she only knows it because of _Xena: Warrior Princess_. Just when she thinks she’s going to sing the entire song by herself, the other woman hesitantly sings the chorus with her.

\---

“But in these times of change, you know it’s no longer true, so we’re coming out of the kitchen cause there’s something we forgot to say to you, yeah.”

As mystery shower woman sings, recognition plays at the edge of Lena’s mind. Finally, she places the song and joins in singing the chorus. They sing the rest of the song together - even through her exhaustion from the long day after a long week. Lena doesn’t hear any music playing in the background, so she waits to see what will happen as the song comes to an end.

Through the wall, Lena hears mystery shower woman turn off her shower. She sighs and settles on taking a quick shower.

* * *

 

Kara doesn’t leave her apartment until the next afternoon, leaving only to restock her ice cream supply.

As she exits the stairwell into the main lobby, the elevator slides open to her left. She tilts her head to the side when she hears humming, feeling a sense of familiarity.

“Is that?”

She slows her pace and sneaks a glance toward the source of the humming, seeing a woman with long brown hair, who is definitely humming “Sisters Are Doin’ It.” The woman isn’t at all what she expected, even though she tells herself she wasn’t thinking about shower duet partner or expecting anything. Lost in her thoughts, she bumps into a potted plant, stumbles to catch her footing, and manages to right herself without breaking anything. At the sound of laughter, she jerks her head around to see the woman from the elevator.

“Are you okay?” the woman asks from where she’s standing at the front door.

“What?” Kara gapes at her. “Oh.” She shakes her head and rubs her palms down the front of her sweatshirt. “Yeah. Yeah.” She waves a hand. “I’m fine.” Glaring sideways at the offending plant, she pushes her glasses back up her nose. “I just wasn’t paying attention.” She meets the woman’s eyes with a shrug.

“Well as long as you’re okay.” The woman smiles at her before pulling the door open and stepping back with a nod toward the door.

“Thanks.” Kara steps forward, ducking her head.

“No problem.” The woman follows her out of the apartment.

Stopping on the sidewalk, Kara spins to face the woman. “I’m Kara, by the way.” She holds out her hand.

With an amused smile, the woman shakes the extended hand. “Nice to meet you, Kara. I’m Sam.”

* * *

 

“Oh, I wanna dance with somebody! I wanna feel the heat with somebody!”

Kara dances along to the music as she sings and shampoos her hair. With a wide smile, she harmonizes with shower duet partner… with Sam. She thinks about the woman she met earlier in the day, wondering how she’s supposed to tell her that Kara is the person she has been singing with for weeks.

\---

Hearing more enthusiasm from mystery shower woman than she has before, Lena sings louder and more freely than she previously has during their impromptu duets. The chorus comes to an end, and Lena begins to rinse her hair as she lets mystery shower woman take the next verse.

“I need a woman who’ll take a chance on a love that burns hot enough to last.”

Lena sucks in a sharp breath when she hears “woman,” and her head turns toward the wall separating them. She as to shake out of her shock, almost missing the chorus. With a smile that is bordering on shy, she sings through the chorus, growing more mesmerized with mystery shower woman’s voice.

As they sing the bridge and last chorus, Lena dances and sings into her shampoo bottle, forgetting her last name and everything that comes with it for a moment. She laughs as she listens to the other woman, who’s somehow become more enthusiastic.

\---

Singing the end of the song, Kara turns off her shower and steps out to wrap herself in a towel. She continues singing as she dries and dresses herself. She hums along to the next song and steps out of her bathroom.

“Have fun?”

Kara spins around toward the source of the voice, finding her sister setting up food on the coffee table. “Alex?” She drops her towel on her bed and walks to the living area. “What are you doing here?”

Alex puts her fists on her hips and raises an eyebrow at her little sister. “We made plans for tonight.”

“We did?”

Alex just raises her eyebrow higher.

“Oh, Rao.” Kara rubs her hand down her face. “You’re right.”

“I know.” Alex sits back on the couch, opening up the food. “What was with the concert in there?”

Plopping down beside her sister, Kara immediately opens the closest container and inspects her options. “I had that song stuck in my head all day,” she took a substantial bite before continuing with her mouthful, “and I guess I just got really into it.”

Alex only shrugs and plucks the remote from Kara’s hands just as she picks it up. “What are we watching?”

“I found my _Frozen_ -”

“New episode of _B99_ it is.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, look at that.” Alex presses play and sets the remote on the arm of the couch beside her. “We actually missed two episodes.”

“Alex,” Kara whines through her second mouthful.

“Don’t act like that. You know you like this show.”

“Yeah…” Kara swallows down her food with a drink of water. “Fine, you win.”

“It was never really a competition.”

Kara gasps in mock offense, and Alex only responds by stealing Kara’s last bite from her hand.

After catching up on their show, they switch to a show they have seen several times to act as background noise while they talk. With a few beers in her, Alex talks at length about her "friend." Kara smiles at the tone Alex speaks as she talks about things they've done or talked about, although the older sister manages to avoid divulging much of any personal information.

“So what’s her name?” Kara scoots closer to her sister, pressing her knees to Alex’s thigh.

“Nope.” Alex takes a swig of her beer and shakes her head. “Not yet.”

“Aww.”

“Put that pout away.” She finishes her beer and begins to clean up the empty food containers. “It’s too soon, and I don’t need you and Winn stalking her.”

“I wouldn't stalk her!”

“Kara…” Alex levels a knowing look at her little sister. “The woman I went out with a few months ago.”

“That’s different!”

“You x-rayed into her apartment.”

“It was only after you left, so I could see if she looked happy!”

“Winn found her elementary school report cards.”

“He did that on his own. He just wanted to see if he could do it with just a name and hair color.”

“Kara.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [](www.battlingbard.org) [ my new website, Battling Bard. ](https://www.battlingbard.org/) I'll be transitioning to primarily posting fan fiction there in addition to my other projects - including blog posts (topics range from autism to long distance relationships to martial arts to parenting (oh yeah, I'm a parent now, y'all)), original fiction, my web series, and other cool stuff.
> 
> If you're still reading at this point, I would be grateful if you had a look at my show, [](https://www.battlingbard.org/thebech.html) [ "The Bech," ](https://www.battlingbard.org/thebech.html) that premieres March 15th, 2019 on a new streaming site for queer content, [](https://jordanthieleman5.wixsite.com/lgbtvumbrellamedia/coming-soon?fbclid=IwAR2GkZc6NI6saF_CjxmW-gx4Va7YRfMBsnUTjP23WKe2tmv7jrWtMj0ZHos) [ LGBTv Umbrella Media. ](https://jordanthieleman5.wixsite.com/lgbtvumbrellamedia/coming-soon?fbclid=IwAR2GkZc6NI6saF_CjxmW-gx4Va7YRfMBsnUTjP23WKe2tmv7jrWtMj0ZHos)
> 
> I'll be back with the conclusion soon!


End file.
